# On Reputation, or Why No One Should Take Me Seriously At All Ever



## surskitty

~*STORY TIME*~

A long time ago in a TCoD FAR, FAR AWAY, there was this neat fiddly feature called reputation.  For a while, it was used all of ... effectively never.  And then Butterfree? was like SUP LET'S MAKE THIS AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.   And it was good.

Only I, as always, had a small group of cohorts who, like me, typically got very angry at people for stupid reasons and would forget it after about a week.

There was also a really awful spriter called AgentChronon.

Now, someone who shall remain nameless was like HM I THINK I WANT TO LOWER THEIR REP BY A LOT POINTLESSLY.  Which was all fine and dandy as far as I was concerned!  (I am not exactly the most moral forum member.)  Only you can't fiddle with the same person's rep twice in a row.  You would need to fiddle with two other people's rep before you could mess with theirs.

In a move that made complete sense afaic, e decided to raise my rep, lower his rep, and do something to $person3's rep to give the awful spriter possibly the lowest reputation on the board.  (Said awful spriter was also an asshole so it's okay I guess.)  This also gave me the _highest_ rep on the board.

And so, I went on a quest to obtain the most tiny green boxes possible!  And found out that after you got like ten boxes, you would get a BRIGHT GREEN BOX.  And the title "Glorious Pillar of Light" or something stupid like that.

The problem with this is that fiddling with reputation scales with the person's rep.  So if I pressed the button at all, it would either raise rep by around 500 points (this is a lot) or lower by 250.

Cue wank.  There was an option to HIDE YOUR REP which was all well and good except that the only people who ever did this had negative rep.  (Usually this was because I pressed a button.  Occasionally it was because $lab_assistant pressed a button.  Sometimes this was because someone actually was annoying and deserved it!  ... but usually it was because I am a cruel and vengeful god.)


As far as I'm concerned, this was all completely hilarious and I was very sad when it vanished.  (MY *BOXES!!*)  I am possibly the most biased person out there.



So #tcod now has a karma feature!  Which made me think of rep.

Reputation was totally awesome, yes?  Or at least it was totally awesome for my posse and pretty awesome for bystanders and awful for the people who actually took it seriously who I pressed the red button at instead of the green one.

ANYONE ELSE WANT IT BACK 8D  I promise that in the event rep returns, I will ... actually I'll probably abuse it again haha.  But this time everyone would know I AM THE MOST AWESOME or possibly the moderator who breaks things the most often.  (HOWEVER I AM TRUSTWORTHY WITH MOD POWERS ALMOST ALWAYS I SWEAR)


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## Tailsy

I LIKE SURSKITTY'S FAILURES so I say yes 

A+ ramble


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## Harlequin

HOORAY let's add rep back! iirc I have pretty awesome rep too, but not as awesome as surskitty's :( no one's was that awesome

also what, we have karma in #tcod now :( damn I'm going to have bad karma like all the time D:


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## Autumn

I liked it :3

(even if I didn't have the best rep in the world)


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## Jetx

I would like to see it back, simply because the drama that stemmed from it was incredible - though this wouldn't be a good point in the eyes of an admin.

Also, certain aspects of the first post made me laugh a lot and also feel a little awkward. A few enlightened individuals may know why.


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## Karkat Vantas

As much as I like reputation programs (mainly so I can lower my own to the point where I'm the most hated person on the forum), I'm going to have to say no. About a week ago there was a massive backlash on the Pokemon Acanthite forums with the rep system at the center of it.

Plus, there are plenty of noobs who find the size of your penis to be directly proportional to your rep, so yeah


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## Jetx

Kam said:


> About a week ago there was a massive backlash on the Pokemon Acanthite forums with the rep system at the center of it.


Fingers crossed!


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## Butterfree

That was supposed to make me _want_ to bring it back?


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## Tailsy

Well you can't say it wasn't kinda funny how silly surskitty is!

... She's the boke of our manzai :(


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## Green

The karma feature sounds interesting enough, so I'll try it sometime. Though, truthfully, reputation systems never turn out good for this very reason- Biasing, obnoxiousness, and just generally people being stupid. :/ But, hey, if we get green boxes...


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## opaltiger

Butterfree said:


> That was supposed to make me _want_ to bring it back?


It was a brilliant tactic, I think, but too subtle and sadly ahead of its time.


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## departuresong

Would never work.


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## goldenquagsire

if it causes bricks to be shit then I'm all for it.


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## Zuu

A+++


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## Spoon

I don't need an army of red or green boxes to tell me what someone's reputation is.

 In other words, is there really a point to the rep system other than getting pretty little boxes by your user info.


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## surskitty

Butterfree said:


> That was supposed to make me _want_ to bring it back?


No.  Not at all.  It's more of a "hm most people don't know the story huh" kind of thing.





Tailsy said:


> Well you can't say it wasn't kinda funny how silly surskitty is!
> 
> ... She's the boke of our manzai :(


I am best ever.





Green said:


> The karma feature sounds interesting enough, so I'll try it sometime. Though, truthfully, reputation systems never turn out good for this very reason- Biasing, obnoxiousness, and just generally people being stupid. :/ But, hey, if we get green boxes...


It took #tcod's karma thing all of about ten seconds to be abused.  8D  And it wasn't even me this time!  _Who would have known?_


opaltiger said:


> It was a brilliant tactic, I think, but too subtle and sadly ahead of its time.


Damn straight.  Or possibly bi.





ShiningGlass said:


> Would never work.


No way, really?





Spoon said:


> I don't need an army of red or green boxes to tell me what someone's reputation is.
> 
> In other words, is there really a point to the rep system other than getting pretty little boxes by your user info.


That is part of why it was a stupid idea to start with and got a lot worse once I became a dark and vengeful god of reputation.  It's also completely pointless.  (This is probably why I am a shining example of WHY TCOD USUALLY CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS: I am really awful to trust with anything pointless.  I can remember that power abuse for things I have more power than normal people for is wrong but if anyone could do it and I get stupid things that I can quest for?  Yeaaaaaaaah.)


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## departuresong

So what did you want to accomplish with this thread? o.o You want reputation back, which I'm not totally opposed to, but all you've done is list reasons why it wouldn't work.


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## ultraviolet

I'd like it back. But then I tend to like drama, so :B

and anyway if people in particular don't like it there could always be a 'hide rep' option or something. anyway I can't see people being obnoxious and causing drama about it apart from people who are obnoxious or cause lots of drama anyway. I don't know. I like to press silly buttons, I guess.


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## surskitty

ShiningGlass said:


> So what did you want to accomplish with this thread? o.o You want reputation back, which I'm not totally opposed to, but all you've done is list reasons why it wouldn't work.


I want it back for entirely petty reasons and don't want it to actually function properly.  Maybe it'd function well on a larger forum, but not here.

So basically I just want little boxes below my name.





ultraviolet said:


> I'd like it back. But then I tend to like drama, so :B
> 
> and anyway if people in particular don't like it there could always be a 'hide rep' option or something. anyway I can't see people being obnoxious and causing drama about it apart from people who are obnoxious or cause lots of drama anyway. I don't know. I like to press silly buttons, I guess.


I also like silly buttons!  ... And breaking things.


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## Effigy of the Forgotten

Some of the whining that the rep system brought with it last time was utterly hilarious, so I wholeheartedly support any drive to bring it back.


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## Aisling

I was only involved with someone who was involved with someone who was involved, but I thought it was all pretty damn hilarious, and we're in a drama recession as it is

Sure, why not?


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## Kratos Aurion

Hm. Rep. The only rep I ever got was an entirely serious kudos for a good post I made when I was fairly new. Then I must have gone missing for a few weeks or something because apparently I missed a gigantic dramasplosion (the aforementioned AgentChronon thing, I guess) and the next thing I knew rep was gone.

I find it mildly depressing that so many of you would be so easily amused by picking on other people for no reason other than The Shiny Buttons Are There--especially since so many people would already be aware that you are being stupid/petty/easily amused when you press the shiny buttons, and with that knowledge I don't imagine much of the desired genuine drama would even occur--but then, I'll also admit that I am a big giant ball of No Fun and have no sense of humor when it comes to traditional internets young adult amusement anyway. Do what you want.

...not that Butterfree is going to consider bringing it back anyway, but! Whatever floats your boat. I ignored it before and during the massive dramasplosion and would continue to do so if it returned, so I really don't care.


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## Harlequin

Can't you just set it so that anyone giving rep only gives +1?


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## octobr

Only in it if we rename it to like
'points towards an orgy' or something I don't know


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## surskitty

I'm not entirely sure why I made this thread in the first place tbh.  :D


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## #1 bro

hey I was *dramatic reveal* agent chronon, and I totally wasn't a spriter. I made like eight sprites in my entire life. 

I guess I'm for bringing back rep because it'll inevitably cause preposterous amounts of drama which would make the forums a lot more interesting (is it just me, or have they been boring lately?)


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## Tailsy

surskitty said:


> I'm not entirely sure why I made this thread in the first place tbh.  :D


I made you. Politely. :D


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## surskitty

Zeta Reticuli said:


> I guess I'm for bringing back rep because it'll inevitably cause preposterous amounts of drama which would make the forums a lot more interesting (is it just me, or have they been boring lately?)


Well, Tailsy and I keep trying to make it more interesting but the forum keeps dying a horrible death so it's hard.  :(


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## Tarvos

so break it


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## Scyther

C'mon, Butterfree, it'd be fun.


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## Tailsy

*SURSKITTY*

*WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DELETING FORUM GAMES ENTIRELY*

... well that would be pretty broken for a while
like
a week


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## Zhorken

and then people would start making games in Insanity.


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## surskitty

Tailsy said:


> *SURSKITTY*
> 
> *WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DELETING FORUM GAMES ENTIRELY*
> 
> ... well that would be pretty broken for a while
> like
> a week


THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS AND WOULD PROBABLY INCREASE THE QUALITY OF DISCUSSION

however in order for that to work, forum games would have to be kill on sight

and that will never happen

so let's not try that :(


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## Adriane

Weren't forum games deleted at one point not too terribly far back?


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## surskitty

No.  :(  We nixed a few threads.


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## Sesquipedalian!

Yes see, I was questioning to myself where the reputation system on a forum running on this had disappeared to.

Would not mind, although from past forums I can remember reputation drama going overboard. If such a thing can be believed here.


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## Tarvos

it is in-credible


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